I haven't started chapter 5 yet. Life is way too hectic right now. But I can't go a day without reading this listserv. I have been mulling over a similar connection as I read Bonita's insightful post. In it she wrote: "I am thinking about the use of art to teach thinking. I love that Ellin uses art in this book to show how the strategies help us to make sense of art". I too attempted to use more art this year. I am by no means an artist ( I was too judgmental). But, I was willing to try. We even tried to write a professional plan that would: use art to attend to detail, use observation to stay in the moment, and notice things in nature. We believed this was a fundamental skill lacking in today's "plugged in" kids. No one took us seriously. After reading Bonita's post I'm thinking perhaps we were not so far off track after all. I'm afraid too many educators do not see the constant links across curriculum, concepts and strategies that reading brings. All too often it is narrowed to fit into reader's workshop and put aside as we move into other areas of the day. We seem to spoon feed them answers because of the heavy demands placed on test scores. But to truly get kids to wait, discuss, think, question, understand, wonder, and observe has to be built into the fabric of our schools. Our 5th graders took the science test for the 1st time this year. They finished a 2 hour test in 20 minutes. I think they had the "let's just get it done ASAP" frame of mind. If we teach them how to ponder in the moment and let them struggle with their thoughts, wouldn't they transfer this into other areas? I still believe we have something going with this art connection. This summer I want to revisit "Picture Learning" and "A Teacher's Sketch Journal" by Karen Ernst. We also dabbled in Nature Journals. Our fundamental goal wasn't to teach them art. It was to get them to slow down and take notice.
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